Fuhrer city

A Fuhrer city, or Führerstadt in German, was a status given to five German cities in 1937 by Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany.[1] The status was based on Hitler's vision of undertaking gigantic urban transformation projects in these cities based on his own conceptions as executed by German architects including Albert Speer, Paul Ludwig Troost, German Bestelmeyer, Konstanty Gutschow, Hermann Giesler, Leonhard Gall and Paul Otto August Baumgarten. More modest reconstruction projects were to take place in thirty-five other cities, although some sources assert this number was as high as fifty.[1] These plans were however not realised for the greater part because of the onset of the Second World War, although construction continued to take place even in wartime circumstances at Hitler's insistence.[2]

After the Battle for France in 1940, Hitler ordered that the architectural reshaping of these cities was to be completed by 1950, and should represent the magnitude of the German victories in Western Europe.[3]

The five Führer cities were:

In addition to the five cities decreed, there were plans to begin similar building projects in Königsberg, Oldenburg, Posen, Saarbrücken and Wewelsburg.[3] At the influence of the Gauleiters, Hitler also greatly increased the number of cities that were slated for reconstruction by twenty-seven additional ones not much later.[2] According to a letter (dated 19 February 1941) by Albert Speer to the National Socialist Party Treasurer these were Augsburg, Bayreuth, Bremen, Breslau (Wrocław), Cologne, Danzig (Gdańsk), Dresden, Düsseldorf, Graz, Hanover, Heidelberg, Innsbruck, Königsberg, Memel (Klaipéda), Münster, Oldenburg, Posen (Poznań), Prague, Saarbrücken, Salzburg, Stettin (Szczecin), Waldbröl, Weimar, Wolfsburg, Wuppertal and Würzburg.[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Spotts, Frederic (2003). Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics, p. 332. The Overlook Press, New York.
  2. 1 2 3 Speer, Albert (1970). Inside the Third Reich, pp. 253, 711. Macmillan Company, New York.
  3. 1 2 Boog, Horst (1998). Germany and the Second World War: The attack on the Soviet Union. Oxford University Press. p. 14. ISBN 0-19-822886-4.
  4. 1 2 Hitler, Adolf (2000). Bormann, Martin, ed. Hitler's Table Talk 1941-1944. trans. Cameron, Norman; Stevens, R.H. (3rd ed.). Enigma Books. pp. 445–446. ISBN 1-929631-05-7.
  5. 1 2 3 Taylor, Robert R. (1974). The word in stone: the role of architecture in the National Socialist ideology. University of California Press. pp. 50–51. ISBN 0-520-02193-2.
  6. 1 2 Owens Zalampas, Sherree (1990). Adolf Hitler: a psychological interpretation of his views on architecture, art, and music. Popular Press. p. 82. ISBN 0-87972-488-9.
  7. Pearce, Susan M. (2002). The collector's voice: critical readings in the practice of collecting. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 55. ISBN 1-85928-419-1.
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